John Wright | Co-Founder of StatsDrone

Introduction

Success leaves clues.

Finance Strategists sat down with John Wright, founder of StratsDrone. He shared his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insight he gained from running the business.

Who is John Wright?

Q: Who are you and what’s your background?

I'm the CEO & co-founder of StatsDrone which is a SaaS startup that makes tools for the affiliate marketing industry. We make tools not just for affiliate marketers but affiliate programs as well.

I've taken an unusual path to get where I am today. I graduated from university in engineering focusing on robotics and artificial intelligence. After graduating I got into professional gambling which lead me to working in the online gambling industry. I've worked on both sides of the fence as an affiliate manager and then setting up my own affiliate sites. This journey has lead me where I am today which is using all of this experience for my SaaS startup.

Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you?

I could probably write a few thousand words on a few individuals and why they are important to me. Some of these individuals are very private people that have a lot of success and wealth but are not very public about it.

3 of these people are in the affiliate marketing space and they all have unique attributes. They put their own signature on how they work and do business but they almost always seem to do the right thing. Now I know in which ways they have made mistakes in the past but I know they have learned from all of them.

One of these friends in particular is a mentor and I've been fortunate enough to be able to ask for criticism and feedback on my own business. It gets to the point where sometimes I envision what my peers would say or think about some business decisions and it has caused me to refine how I operate.

One person that I know doesn't mind the praise is a guy named Eman Pulis whom operates the SiGMA conferences around the globe. I remember blogging about his events when he was a startup trying to get it off the ground and although he made it look easy, it was very hard work. He has always been hustling and despite having great success, he just doesn't stop. To top it all off, he continues to treat everyone with respect and he treats every new contact as if he was in that startup mode trying to earn their respect in return.

A few people that have recently inspired me have been Adnan Maslo, Marcin Jablonski, and Keith Hathaway. These 3 have been in Poland helping Ukrainians fleeing the attacks on their country.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self?

Well the obvious would be to get them Bitcoins when they were worth a few dollars. I wouldn't want to change the past knowing how my path has shaped me for who I am today. That said the single thing I know I wish I focused on more was personal finance. I was lazy with personal finance for a long time. I wanted to get good with it but I never knew where to start and I didn't talk to a lot of friends about it. Despite only spending the last few years really getting sharper with it, I find it ironic that I have other friends asking me to share what I know for investing and personal finance.

Business

Q: What is StatsDrone?

It isn't always easy explaining what we do but I rather have to show people demos of the tools we are working on. Currently the site you see today at statsdrone.com is we are a stats aggregator for affiliate marketers. This is our first SaaS but we are intending to build more dynamic tools that at some point have the ability to talk to each other. We want to build feedback systems and integrate some ai in order to make affiliate marketing smarter for both affiliates and affiliate programs.

Later in 2022 we will be launching more products and keeping those launch plans close to us as we have some competitors checking us out.

Q: What makes StatsDrone different from its competitors?

My best way of explaining it is we have a few competitors for some of our tools but I don't see them building other tools where those other tools we have a different set of competitors. I think by going in the direction we are going, there is a means of connecting multiple applications and using that leverage to create a more powerful platform.

Q: What led you to start StatsDrone?

I have used stats aggregator tools in the past and I felt they never fully listened to affiliates as the ones available I felt didn't work as affiliates. Some of the problems I encountered as an affiliate, I knew others had the same issue and I felt a stats app should and could be a centralized place to share this information. Most of the top-performing affiliates don't like to spend any time on webmaster forums and I know the data they care to look at everyday is their performance marketing stats and how much money they have made.

I just felt things could be pushed further and this has led to more ideas and the creation of more tools. I just think the world of affiliate marketing is running on not just old technology but old ideas too. I am enjoying the creation process of solving problems and even taking it a step further or solving problems that people are struggling to identify as a problem. I like sharing what we do and getting the feedback from people where they see that 'aha' moment too.

Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you?

You have to be resilient. I've encountered so many problems and setbacks over the years, you either learn from them and move forward or give up. I could have chosen to fall back on tried and tested affiliate marketing sites but I don't want this. I've had to learn to be patient with success but be equally impatient for progress. As the CEO I have to be the leader and lead by example.

Q: Where do you see things headed for you and the company in the next 5 years?

If I have my way, I'd like my company to be synonymous with affiliate marketing. For e-commerce you think of Amazon, for SEO you think of Ahrefs, for search engines you think of Google, but what do people think about when they hear affiliate marketing? I don't think there is a definitive company in this space unless you think about affiliate networks like AWIN and ShareASale but I meet a lot of affiliates that never have heard of these companies despite being giants.

For more information, visit statsdrone.com